Hey guys! For those of you that liked "Transformers" or haven't seen it yet (like me) you can see it again... EVEN BIGGER! It's comin' to IMAX on September 21st with additional footage not seen in the theatrical release! I guess I'm glad I waited.

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Originally posted by Trekscribbler:
What's not to like? TRANSFORMERS was big, loud, dumb, and pretty. Everything you come to expect from a Michael Bay film, and (nearly) everything you come to expect from a summer blockbuster.

I completely agree! It was Bay ALL THE WAY! Sure, the guy/girl story wasn't all that wonderful, but who went for the guy/girl story?! (Didn't you make mention of that, Ishmael ?) I actually came very close to hitting that chapter skip button, but I was able to stick it out for what I was really wanting to see... the action. Oh, it was sooooooo worth the wait! I instantly forgot all about that dude from "I, Robot" and what's-her-face! I mean, they were tossing tanks! TANKS!!! I haven't seen a tank tossed that good since "HULK"! And this was a bunch of 'em! How beautiful was it when those big robotic bastards transformed on the highway and started duking it out?! How can you not appreciate the snazzy of Starscream hiding among the other jets then suddenly transforming and taking 'em out, one by one?!

I was annoyed by the "love story" and I hated the fact that they turned Bumblebee into a camero. Bay even teases us by placing him right next to a yellow VW Bug! I don't see why he couldn't have started as the Bug, then when the girl says something like, "Why is this advanced robot a crappy volkswagon?", he coulda kicked 'em out and changed into the camero! Just give us Bumblebee the way he was for at least a little while! I also didn't like him being mute, and then at the end he can suddenly speak for no apparent reason. I had other problems with it too, but I didn't let them stand in the way of what I truly wanted to enjoy: the Transformers! These problems were extremely minor in comparison to the action that was delivered! It is immensely better than "Pearl Harbor". For as long as that movie is, I only watch it from chapter 21 to 29. I'll go as far as 30 if I have a little extra time to kill, but I can't stand the rest of the movie! Same for "Bad Boys 2". The only watchable scene is the freeway chase, and that's nowhere near as long as the attack in "Pearl Harbor"! I could actually "suffer" through the few scenes where the robots in disguise don't appear because they aren't that long!

I did like that he had the same voice actor from the 'toon play Optimus Prime in the movie. He never sounded better! I also loved how he touched upon the rivalry between Megatron and Starscream. Sure, it was only one line, but it was there! Some people have mentioned how horrible Jazz was with his stereotypical "black" voice, but if you remember, Jazz had the same kinda voice and dialogue in the cartoon and they really only updated what he said. Besides he only had one line, really. So, who cares? You also had the action, which basically canceled out every flaw this movie had for me! It didn't even bother me that the characters didn't resemble their cartoon counterparts! In fact, he did make 'em look cooler with all those moving parts! My kids especially enjoyed it, so in the end it ranks really high with me because I'm so sick of watching 'Spongebob' and 'Scooby-Doo' all the time and the violence in "Transformers" is basically done between the robots and, as with all PG-13 movies, it has zero blood.

I, personally, only go to (or buy) a Michael Bay film for the action scenes (and I own 'em all except for "Bad Boys 2". Not enough action for me to want to own that dreck!) because NOBODY does action better. Story? I'm not interested in one when it comes to Bay because he always follows the same basic formula for every one of his films:
1.Imminent danger
2.Introduce sterotypical characters: The nerd, the black guy(s), the father who wants to be untited with his child, the loving couple (or the start of one), etc., etc.
3.Only one man/boy can save us
4.One-liners galore
5.FANTASTIC action sequences
6.Happy ending
He's never waivered from this, which leads me to the question for those who went and were pissed that there wasn't more development, story or character-wise (which I've asked before): What were you expecting? I was expecting giant robots beating the crap outta each other and the military and that's what I got! Who else is gonna give us that, other than Michael Bay?

By the way, for anyone that cares, if you watch through to the end of the credits, you'll get a menu screen with the teaser trailer for "IRON MAN"! And it's in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound! Speaking of sound, the movie sounds great and they used the surround speakers to the max, but I'm pissed it's not in DTS. If any movie SCREAMS for DTS, it's a Michael Bay movie!


I actually had to type all of this twice! What the flub happened to the website about an hour ago? I saw I was the first to get back on, so it wasn't just MY connection.

After watching it a few more times (skipping chapters 3 and 5 make it a whole lot more enjoyable ), I'm just a wee bit confused. For all of these complaints, nobody seems to wanna give the guy credit for keeping quite a few elements from the 'toon. Did no one notice that Optimus and Megatron had the same weapons they used in the second episode in the first season? Well, they weren't exactly the same, but Optimus had a sword pop outta his arm and Megatron had, what looked like, a mace also come outta his arm. In "More Than Meets the Eye" Part 2, when the two of them fight on a dam, they both bring weapons out of their arms! The only difference is Optimus has a battle axe. He also kept the human holograms the Transformers used to "blend in"! I'm happy he didn't make Megatron a gun, I hated that in the cartoon. It was so stupid because he had to trust somebody else to fire him. I even remember when one of the Autobots got ahold of him and used him to shoot Starscream! Now THAT was stupid! Did any real fans of the cartoon go see this movie? It doesn't seem like many of you were.

After watching the special features, I actually kinda respect ol' Mr. Bay a little more. He took a pay cut to make this movie and he only "sold out" to Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC to get more money for the effects! However, he never planned on making Bumblebee a Volkswagon Bug, so he still has my disgust in that respect. He even explains why he made Barricade a police car. Which actually makes sense when you hear him talking about it. I'm not too disgusted with what he did with Soundwave. He was always one of my favorites because I loved his voice. However, I agree that having a character go from an 18-foot tall robot to an object that can fit in your pocket is a bit ridiculous. I just kinda wish they really tried to come up with a way to have the 'bot, himself, be in the movie. The little radio guy (who they ended up calling Frenzy) was kinda cool, though. Too bad they couldn't find a way to include Rumble, Ravage, and, of course, Laserbeak. I haven't listened to the commentary, yet. I'm not sure if I will anytime soon, either. This isn't a movie I really have any pressing questions about with the hope that the director can shed some light on the subject. Not really all that thought provoking. Which isn't a bad thing for a movie like this.

A really cool thing for me, is he used one of my old toys that I lost many, many years ago: Scorponok! This sucker was a triple-changer that went from a giant robot to a giant scorpion and then opened up into a giant base! I got it when I was in 4th grade and STUPIDLY took it to school for show-n-tell. I got into a fight and lost all of the small parts! Man, I was an idiot for taking that thing to school, but ya know when you're a kid, you don't think about that kinda stuff happening. You only wanna proudly show everyone what ccol toy you've got. I still do that, though. Anytime someone stops by my house that ain't never been here before, I gotta show 'em the Den!

There are talks of a sequel. Michael Bay may have killed off Megatron, but Starscream is still alive and there are many more Decepticons they can choose from. Ol' Starscream always wanted to be the leader in the cartoon. Now he finally has his chance! Hey! Maybe we'll actually see Devastator, or any one of those multi-robot giants that they have! Now that would rock!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Monkey_Boy,

its all you in here, monkey. thanks for the tips.

quote:

Originally posted by Monkey_Boy:
He's never waivered from this, which leads me to the question for those who went and were pissed that there wasn't more development, story or character-wise (which I've asked before): What were you expecting?

I went to see this on Saturday at the cheap theater. Considering Bay's track record, I wasn't expecting much of a story, which is good, because Bay didn't deliver much of a story.

My question to you, MB, is why must a good action movie and a coherent story be at odds? Surely this movie wouldn't have been hurt by closing the gaping plot holes and de-cheesing the dialogue by 50% or so. I just look at a film like this, and the PotC movies and see a ton of wasted potential.

Unlike you, I also think that the guy/girl story was probably the one redeeming quality of the movie. It breathed some humanity into the story, gave the audience something to care about, and saved the film from being one long-winded special effects sequence.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
My question to you, MB, is why must a good action movie and a coherent story be at odds?

Ishmael, asked me the very same question! You misunderstand. It's not that I don't wanna great story with my action, I'm an action junkie, so I tend to enjoy just watching it, no story needed. Literally. I'll pop in several DVD's with great action sequences and only watch those chapters! Ya know, like all of my DVD's with the "Greatest Car Chases", or "Most Bad @ss Fight Sequences", or even "Most Action-Packed Battles"! However, there are times I do want a story and the story was just too awful for me to enjoy anything about the movie ("Bad Boys 2", "Ecks VS Sever: Ballistic", "Ultraviolet", "EWWWWW!"), but I have enough sense to know what to expect from certain directors. Nearly everyone in this thread seemed to be shocked at the content of CGI, the dialogue, and yes, even the "love story" was said to be unbearable. I loved the CGI and explosions! In fact, that's what I paid 25 bucks to see! (Well, actually I paid $20 to see the effects, the extra $5 was to see How and Why they did what they did.) If I wanted a movie with a heart and a brain, then I'da saw a Steven Speilberg, Ridley Scott, or James Cameron action film.

This is a Michael Bay film, what expectactions can there be for a Bay film except for FANTASTIC ACTION? Has he ever broken out of this mold? Why go in expecting more from him? Those were my questions. I wasn't saying action movies should be dumb as all get out and made for children, I was only saying HIS were, but his action choreography usually MORE than makes up for it for me.

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Unlike you, I also think that the guy/girl story was probably the one redeeming quality of the movie. It breathed some humanity into the story, gave the audience something to care about, and saved the film from being one long-winded special effects sequence.

Roger Ebert's thoughts exactly . He even thought they could've had there own movie ! I just can't get into Bay's "romantic" characters. I mean, I laughed when Sam showed off a muscle as he tried to impress Mikaela, but when it comes to Bay, I'm there for the action. Besides, Spike and Sparkplug weren't completely fleshed out human characters in the cartoon. I don't think a single person turned on their television to see humans on 'Transformers' anyway. I never owned (and never wanted to own) any of their toys, did you?

I don't know what everybody's talking about when they say they didn't like it when it became a CGI-fest of battling robots, I woulda been pissed if there wasn't one! At the end of each cartoon there was MAJOR robot-on-robot action, how can you be disgusted (or surprised) by it in the movie?! Right at the beginning when Blackout first transformed and started blowing shite up, a smile went across my face, and came back EVERYTIME I watched those massive robots onscreen. They were beautiful. THEY were why I wanted to see the movie.

quote:

Originally posted by Fitz:
also, computer nerds aren't as hot as that one chick.

By the way, there are sexy nerds in the world, they aren't all glasses and pimples! In fact I have a shark documentary with the sexiest, British marine bioligist you've ever seen! Intelligence isn't really based on looks, ya know?

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Originally posted by Trekscribbler:

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Originally posted by Ishy:
But Jaws, Raiders, Empire....they combined brains and action....why does this generation just get dumb blockbusters???

Because they sell.

I have trouble believing that audiences seek out bad stories. I think it's more a case of audiences buying what their sold. You can't tell me that if given the choice between this and a coherent, somewhat intelligent story, audiences wouldn't enjoy the latter more?

If you asked people for their favorite action films of all time - movies that people want to see more than once - I guarantee you they're all films with a smart story.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
If you asked people for their favorite action films of all time - movies that people want to see more than once - I guarantee you they're all films with a smart story.

I agree! Just as I have the ones I always watch all the way through compared to the ones where I have no patience to wait for the action. Which is much better than the story in those particular movies, anyway. I wouldn't recommend any of my "strictly-for-the-action" movies, unless someone was actually looking for nuthin' but the best action scenes. Completely different catagory!

If this is the NEW transformers as in the actual people and not the cartoons then yeah i loved it!
Awesome scenes and action things..The cars are preddy mad too!

Ladaz